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Are you giving products the online support they need?

I know that many of you who look at other online marketing blogs wonder what planet they’re on, and wish you could visit it. I just read a good article about the differences between landing pages aimed at “converting” into enquiries and pages designed to rank highly in search results. This all makes sense, but in my experience, most of you good folks reading this daily email aren’t creating any new landing pages at all.

There are many reasons for this. I suspect the main one is “we don’t have the time or the ability”. This tends to come from the type of company which completely tears up its website and starts again every 10 years, but does little in the meantime. It’s not a criticism – the way you work is what it is.

Another explanation for not experimenting with new pages on the site is that “we can’t afford it”. This comes from the company which has the unfortunate combination of an arrangement to maintain its site with a web developer who charges by the second, and an online marketing budget which is seriously inadequate.

A third reason is more commonplace than people realise. A client once said to me: “I bet you’ve never worked with someone like us before, where our head office in Germany doesn’t let us touch the website, have you?” To which the answer was: “You represent about a third of our clients”.

I’ve seen companies overcome all of these situations. Indeed – and I’m apprehensive about suggesting this – it’s often the case that they’re just excuses for inaction. If you’re not creating sets of new web pages for each of your main products (particularly for new launches), ask yourself if you could. That means separate pages to rank in the search engines and to be the landing pages for advertisements.

For many companies, perhaps including your competitors, this is now a standard part of every new product launch. In the consumer sector, supporting products with different types of web pages is taken for granted. That’s why most marketing blogs assume this to be the case. Should it be for you?